Put Them Back in Poetry
by Lizicia
Summary: 'She laughs, suddenly feeling light and relaxed. It's been three months since she left him at a train station in Amsterdam and he seems different than she remembers.' Annie/Eyal, post-season 3.


**A/N:** Well, hello there! It's approximately five months until the new season of Covert Affairs and I'm suffering major withdrawal. So much so that when I saw Oded Fehr guest star on NCIS a few weeks ago, this story came to be.

**Disclaimer:** I thought it was Oded Fehr the other day on the street. But nope, still belongs to Chris Ord and Matt Corman. And the title is from Florence + the Machine's_ All This And Heaven Too_.

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Annie sits at a cafe in Athens, checking her watch again. Her contact is late which is never a good sign. She's just supposed to sit down, wait for someone to join and switch cases with them. It reminds her of one of her first missions but her musings are cut sort when a man finally sits down opposite her. They exchange remarks about the weather and when he leaves, he takes her briefcase with him.

After he's left, she barely has the time to take out her wallet when someone sits down opposite her again.

"I'm sorry, that seat is-" Annie starts but startles as she looks up and a familiar face looks down at her.

"Taken? Even for me?"

She has nothing to say as Eyal Lavine sits down opposite her, looking every part smug and content.

"Well, of all the European capitals, you come here, Annie Walker?" There's a twinkle in his eye and this tells her there is nothing coincidental about this meeting.

"And you were just passing through, right? How did you even find me?" She laughs, suddenly feeling light and relaxed. It's been three months since she left him at a train station in Amsterdam, and after he left the spy game, she didn't expect to see him again.

He smiles and there's a softness to him she's never seen before and she thinks this is the Eyal she has never known, the kind of a man he might have been before Mossad.

"I may not be a spy anymore but I know people. And I'm here as a friend, if you will because I know that the man you switched cases with ripped you off."

Annie looks at him in alarm. "What do you know about that?"

"I know that you exchanged information and while you gave him what you promised, he did not hold on to his end of the bargain. Check it, if you don't believe me."

She's always had implicit belief in him, so she opens the case, takes out the thumb drive, connects it to her laptop and speed dials Auggie.

"Hey, Annie, everything alright?" There's warmth in his voice but she is too worried to take notice.

"Hey, I connected the thumb drive – can you check if everything's there?"

"Sure, but why would you think it isn't?"

She meets Eyal's eyes but something inside her refuses to let Auggie know whose idea this was or that Eyal's even there. "Just a gut feeling."

A few moments pass and she hears Auggie's hands moving on the keyboard until they come to a stop and she hears a muttered _shit_.

"Some gut you have, Walker. You were right; the data is corrupt. Can you stall your contact?"

"No, he's gone. But I think I have a way of tracking him down. Tell Joan I'll recover the data."

And she hangs up before Auggie can say another word.

"So, how are you going to track him down?" Eyal smirks at her.

"Oh, I have a feeling you know or else you wouldn't be here, Eyal."

"Ready for an adventure, Walker?"

"Life's never boring with you around, I'll give you that."

The next half-hour is filled with Eyal calling people, mostly cursing at them in Hebrew – and sometimes in Greek – until he finally turns to her with glee.

"I have a lead. Your contact decided to go rogue, screwing over both you and his employer. The good news is that I know where he was last seen, so let's go."

They move through the streets of Athens, and Annie decides to take the opportunity to catch up.

"So, what have you been doing? Sailing?"

"Oh, this and that. Sailing among them. The Aegan Sea is gorgeous this time of year, just to take your boat out and sail, you know?"

There's something odd about his voice and she catches it. "Oh my god." A laugh escapes Annie and he gives her an alarmed look. "You don't know how to sail, do you?"

The look on his face is priceless, pure surprise and she knows she caught him unaware.

"So what was all that talk about going sailing then?"

He shrugs, having restored his confidence in a matter of seconds. "Well, you have to do something with your life. Sailing sounds like something people in the Greek isles might do. If I had said I was just going to roam the isles and not really have a purpose-"

"I wouldn't have let you go." Annie means it like a joke, a slightly flirtatious jab, like they've always traded but the shadow that momentarily falls over his face creates an odd kind of tension. She doesn't realize where it's coming from but before she can remark on it, it's gone.

"Well, I did take up sailing recently but the sea reminds me too much of Israel. I've seen this sea from a different perspective and it's just not the same."

She realizes he hasn't been back to Israel since he quit and along with that, realizes what else he must be missing.

"What about your son?"

"What about Avi?"

"Have you seen him since you left?"

He gives her a sideways glance. "It's not like we saw each other every weekend when I was there, Annie. And he has his mother."

"But you're his father."

There's another tense moment and Annie wonders if she overstepped somehow as he rewards her with a warning look.

"There's your contact."

The moment's broken and as she looks over to where he is indicating, sees the man she met just a couple of hours ago having a drink on the hotel terrace.

"So, good CIA agent, bad Mossad agent?"

She smiles; it is just like it used to be. "Let's do this."

The contact breaks during the first ten minutes; the idea of an Israeli assassin threatening to throw him off a balcony is apparently all it takes for him to give up the rest of the data. It's almost disappointing because she had been looking forward to working with Eyal again - when it comes to someone who tries to outsmart two intelligence agencies and does it for the first time, they're doomed from the start.

She calls Auggie to let him know the data has been retrieved and the thief left at the mercy of his own agency.

"I don't think he had a chance, truth be told. He was shaking from the moment he saw us and held out at first but when Eyal told him he was Mossad-"

"Wait, Eyal was there?"

"Yes, we ran into each other earlier."

The silence on the other end is a bit defeaning and during that silence Annie begins to wonder if she shouldn't have told him that.

"Well, that's something. Eyal Lavine just roaming about in Athens." Auggie's voice is tense, like he's controlling some emotion and she doesn't understand it. She thought the two men liked each other, respected each other and hasn't she told Auggie twice that there are no feelings there?

"Listen, I'll be back tomorrow; there are no flights out today." She pauses a moment and to mend a fence she isn't sure how she's broken, continues with a softer voice, "I missed you."

There's an even bigger silence until he coughs. "Get back safe, Walker."

She hangs up the phone and stares at it in puzzlement. She isn't sure what just happened but notices Eyal, hovering in the background and decides to make the most of her extended stay in Greece.

"So, a celebratory dinner?"

He gives her a somewhat odd look and she gets the feeling he heard her conversation with Auggie but he nods, albeit with some barely detectable reluctance. "Okay. But I get to pick where we eat since I'm the only one here who actually knows something about food."

Fifteen minutes later, they're seated at a small seafood restaurant. Annie listens to Eyal speak Greek effortlessly and sips her ouzo. She lets him order and since Greek is one of the languages she can't speak or even understand, effectively and most willingly surrenders control to him.

"So, what about you, Annie Walker? You've managed to blindside me with your questions all day but what have you been up to?"

There are two important topics which jump to mind: Auggie and Henry Wilcox. But she doesn't want to talk about work even if she knows Eyal might offer her a few pointers about betrayal and who to trust. She isn't sure why she doesn't want to mention Auggie and the recent development in their relationship but it comes down to her gut feeling, the same one that told her not to mention to Auggie that she was with Eyal the first time they spoke. So she turns to something rather innocent.

"Well, I was actually just in California, to spend time with Danielle, Katia and Chloe and we-"

"Annie. I know you don't want to talk to me about your sister and your nieces. What's really on your mind?"

She looks at him, sees the sincerity in his eyes and decides for the lesser evil. "How do you decide who to trust when you have the choice between two sides and you don't quite believe either one of them?"

"Is it your gut speaking?"

She smiles. "No. I have actual proof from both sides but they can't both be right. How do I know which one is right?"

"Why do you assume one of them is right? Maybe they're both wrong."

She thinks about it for a second. She's more than willing to believe that Henry Wilcox is duping her with his outrageous theories and yet knows that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Joan and Arthur, remembering what they did with Ben Mercer.

"I never thought I would have to choose. Never thought I could have it in me to seriously doubt the people I've come to trust. And now, here I am."

"That's the business we're in. There are no guarantees that your friends won't turn out to be your enemies or vice versa and there are always more than two sides to a story in this line of work."

She thoughtfully eats instead of an answer, thoroughly enjoying Eyal's choices. He gets the message and they don't talk for a while until she's managed to compose her thoughts a bit more.

"But what if I make the wrong choice and it will cost me my friends?"

Annie fears this the most. Fears that she makes the wrong choice and ends up in a bad situation and there will be no one there for her because she's also alienated everyone she could count on.

"I don't have an answer for you, Annie. The last time I was in this situation, I lost something very important to me. It's a risk you have to take."

She thinks he is referring to quitting Mossad. He wasn't just a spy, he embodied it and it must have cost him something to just leave one day.

"It must have been hard to leave everything behind. The agency, your country, your family."

He frowns as if not understanding something, so she clarifies. "Despite what they did, I guess a part of you wishes to be back in Mossad and that's what you've lost."

There's a flicker of recognition on his face but also some kind of disappointment, like her answer is correct but also incorrect, and it confuses her in turn. She's been having a terrible time reading Eyal this time and she gets the feeling he's doing it on purpose, hiding from her. And something else is wrong, something she isn't grasping quite yet but feels as though she should.

"Yes, you're right. I guess I do wish I could continue with the things I'm good at but I've settled for letting the current take me."

She's reminded of the first time they worked together in the States and how he told her about the current. Back then she'd thought he was full of himself a bit – and flirting a lot – but now she knows the truth in it. Knows that fighting the current only gets you so far before you drown in it.

"So, you think I should let the current lead me?"

He shrugs and smiles. "Well, the current can't be wrong, Annie. It may seem like it's wasting your time but it's never wrong. It can flow only in one direction and wherever you end up is where you're meant to be."

The walk back to her hotel is quiet. He leaves her alone with her thoughts and this gives her the opportunity to try and make sense of this day. The talk about currents triggered something in her, the same knowledge about something being off and she tries to get a hold of it, tries to figure it out before he goes.

"Well, here we are."

Annie turns to see her hotel right in front of them and doesn't even bother asking how he knows where she's staying.

"I must thank you. I most enjoyed being Mossad again, threatening to break arms, even if it was for a short period of time."

She gives him an exaggerated pout. "Just that? You didn't enjoy my company?"

Eyal smiles but it's a careful smile, a smile too polite to be real. "It was nice. We work well together. Good night, Annie."

He turns and walks away and suddenly it hits her, like pieces of a puzzle coming together. She knows what's wrong.

"Eyal!"

He stops and turns and she catches up with him in a few steps. "You didn't call me _neshema_. During the entire time, you never once referred to me like that."

Eyal looks at her like she imagines he would look at his son when he's said something inappropriate. "Annie..."

"Don't _Annie_ me. I thought that was our thing."

Now there's a flash of anger on his face but he still remains calm and collected. "Maybe it was, _was_ being the operative word."

"I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?"

Sadness descends on his features, more real and painful than she's ever seen, and he isn't hiding anything from her anymore as he takes a deep breath and looks away for a moment before directing his gaze straight at her. "Annie. You can't be my _neshema_ anymore. You're Auggie's."

Annie feels like the rug has been pulled from under her and at the same time like her eyes have opened. Why she felt like she needed to say it over and over again that she doesn't have feelings for him, or him for her or tell herself that he meant _neshema_ in a way friends would and that it never was anything more than it seemed. Everything he has done for her is revealed in a new light and it feels overwhelming. She thinks of the words _ani ohev otach_ and really knows.

He's still looking at her but she can't stop him from leaving because that would be too much of a gamble and she doesn't really know what to say.

"Goodbye, Annie."

And something unexpected inside her crumbles, something she didn't realize she'd built as she watches him walk away.

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**A/N: I really wasn't going to make it this angst-ridden but my Muse really felt like it. I hope my Annie-voice was okay; I'm much more comfortable writing from Eyal's POV (I'm sure it says something about me). _Ani ohev otach_ is Hebrew for_ I love you_.**

**Do let me know what you think!**


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